Whisky & Honey Ice Cream

Update: Click here for the updated Whisky and Honey Ice Cream recipe.

While I insist to not have favourites, this recipe is certainly high on my list.

So when my dad sent me a new one-gallon White Mountain freezer for my birthday, I knew how I had to inaugurate the new machine.

My new one gallon White Mountain freezer

We first made Whisky and Honey Ice Cream when we were cycling in the Outer Hebrides and it was certainly an amazing experience to make and eat it in the Standing Stones of Calanish.

I decided to celebrate by making a big batch of Whisky and Honey Ice Cream that I could keep in the freezer and enjoy over a few days. I soon discovered this is the perfect ice cream for storage.

The recipe for one gallon:

  • 600g honey
  • 3 eggs
  • 800ml double cream
  • 4.5 tablespoons of 18-year old Caol Ila whisky
  • milk

Caol Ila 18-year-old Whisky

I used Caol Ila 18-year because it’s delicious and that’s also what we used at Calanish. It has an excellent balance of peat and smoothness, making it an excellent compliment to honey. It’s very important, however, when making an alcohol ice cream to keep the measurement of alcohol just right. If you put in too much, you’ll have trouble freezing the mixture. But you want enough to get the flavour. It’s a tricky balance, but we somehow got it on the Hebrides and I based my measurement on that. It seems that 3 tablespoons of whisky per half-gallon of ice cream is just right. (When we were in France this summer I made the recipe with a bit extra whisky and it never froze properly.)

Adding honey to the eggs

So we’re basically following the traditional recipe except I replaced the sugar with a larger quantity of honey (since honey is not 100% sugar). Mix it all up and take it out to crank!

Cranking my new one-gallon freezer

Finished!

Whisky and Honey Ice Cream has an amazing flavour. This recipe has an unbeatable flavour balance and a luxurious texture.

But the most amazing thing about it is that if you store the ice cream in the freezer it stays at eating texture. The alcohol has lowered the freezing point just enough to make it stay ready-to-eat. At any moment if I wanted a spoonful of ice cream I can just open the freezer and scoop it out. You don’t need to let it thaw for 15-20 minutes as with any other ice creams. This makes Whisky and Honey Ice Cream the perfect batch to always have on hand.

And the fact that it is so incredibly delicious certainly doesn’t hurt one bit.

Peter Gerard

Peter carried the hand-cranking ice cream tradition from his family in Missouri to Scotland and eventually to New York. He is now likely the biggest importer of White Mountain Freezers to Europe, having imported more than a dozen machines...

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7 Responses

  1. Thibault says:

    This is also one of my favourites (with honey-roasted oats churned in…yum!), but surprinsingly it is not very popular. When we made it this summer, and although we were about 30 people, there were many leftovers… Humen nature is a mystery…

  2. Peter Gerard says:

    Did you make it again? When we made it for your party I put in too much whisky and it didn’t freeze properly…

  3. ben darling says:

    is there a good substitute for the Caol Ila? we have ice , salt and cream in west Nebraska but exotic scotches are hard to find. Should mention I like both scotch and homemade ice cream

  4. Peter Gerard says:

    I like peaty whisky, and the Caol Ila 18-year provides a superb balance of peat with smoothness (due to its age). Of course you can try with other whiskies. Personally I would stick with something peaty from Islay or maybe an older Talisker…

  1. 31 July 2009

    […] As this was a slightly last minute affair I grabbed what ever was to hand for flavouring, which fortunately turned out to be some Caol Ila 18 year old whisky and some left over honey (although I only had 100ml / approx 1/2  US cup of honey so I had to make the difference up with sugar). I also decided to throw in a whole pint of cream (thats an extra 100ml / 1/2 US cup) and double the amount of whiskey (compared with Peter’s recipe). […]

  2. 17 August 2010

    […] chocolate, buttermilk vanilla, maybe some chai ice cream.  And then there’s the recipe for Whiskey & Honey ice cream.  I can’t do the honey part, but liquor in ice cream sounds like a winning […]

  3. 24 September 2017

    […] time readers of Triple Motion will know that Whisky & Honey is one of our favorite flavors, ever since we first cranked it amongst the windswept standing stones of Callanish […]

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